Charles Schwab plans to launch its much-anticipated direct indexing technology, called Schwab Personalized Indexing, by the end of April. according to firm, The new facility will be available to both consultants and retail customers.
Schwab is testing direct indexing — investing in an underlying index with the ability to “customize” that portfolio based on individual investors’ needs — with the firm’s employees and associates. since September, Many experimental features remain the same, such as the $100,000 account minimum and only for taxable accounts. Schwab is charging a 40-basis-point fee for using the service.
Tax and portfolio management will be provided by Schwab Asset Management. The index will include the US Large Cap-based Schwab 1000 Index, the US Small Cap-based S&P SmallCap 600 Index and the environmental, social and governance-based MSCI KLD 400 Social Index.
For separately managed accounts, Schwab’s direct indexing option “combines technology and human advice,” said Jalina Kerr, managing director of customer experience for Schwab Advisory Services. Schwab’s investment team will daily monitor client portfolios and tax-loss harvesting opportunities.
“Each client account is customized based on existing holdings and unrecovered tax profile,” she said. “Portfolio Management Team” [will be] Consideration of factors such as tax, risk and tracking error during portfolio construction and daily management.
For now, it appears that Schwab Personalized Indexing will focus on automatic tax harvesting on the individual investor’s portfolio—tax effects on accounts can vary per client, say, when an investor invests in, say, the portfolio’s portfolio. Size and withdrawal time.
In the announcement, Schwab indicated that further work would be done over the next “12 to 18 months” to bring additional customization to both investors and advisors, potentially including the ability to change portfolios based on other external stock positions held by the investor. , or with ESG concerns.
Kerr said Schwab’s own forecast is that direct indexing will be more popular than ETFs, SMAs and mutual funds in the next five years. Firm’s direct indexing option, which launches after two years It bought Motif Investing’s technology and team In 2020, will provide “personalization at scale”, she said.
Advisors are divided on the benefits of direct sequencing. Terms like “direct indexing” and “custom indexing” are “only active management in disguise to charge higher fees than index fund fees,” said Scott Salaske, CEO of Troy, Mich.-based Firstmetric. His firm, with $253 million in assets according to regulatory filings, uses Schwab as a custodian.
“Index of One” [Schwab] The Schwab 1000 Index will be offered,” he explained. “One can purchase the Schwab 1000 Index ETF at an expense ratio of 0.05% or pay Schwab through the new ‘personalized indexing’ platform with 0.40%-same index exposure.” For-only the privilege of owning shares of the actual underlying securities that makes up the index. ,
Proponents point to the potential tax benefits of direct indexing as a benefit. If the new service can deliver 35 basis points or more annually, it will break or outperform the index. But that improved performance is still an open question, Salaske said. “I can just buy ETFs and avoid that risk altogether.”
Other risks, he said, are that long-term market growth may not mean enough opportunity for Tax-Loss Harvesting to generate high tax alpha, the possibility of receiving and tracking hundreds of annual reports and proxy voting materials. and likely to come along. Strategy to sell 1,000 shares in a tax-prudent manner. He predicted that consultants would actually be called upon to help “clean up the mess” that direct sequencing would leave behind.
Would direct sequencing potentially provide for optimization? “Once you’ve optimized the index, it’s just active management,” Salaske said. “Most investors are best served by using a low-cost index fund.”
Ryan Caldwell, CEO of Wacker Wealth Partners, based in San Luis Obispo, Calif., says Schwab’s new offering has great potential. According to regulatory filings, the firm has assets of $1.2 billion, and uses Schwab as a custodian.
“We typically obtain exposure to our desired asset allocation through funds, as opposed to individual stocks,” he said, but Caldwell “is interested in Schwab’s active indexing capability.”
To be sure, Schwab isn’t the only firm with a direct indexing portfolio.
Wealthfront—Recently Bought by UBS for $1.4 billion– had a direct indexing offer for years. This feature comes with a 25-basis-point fee and a minimum $100,000 account. The service allocates funds to up to 600 individual stocks with the largest market capitalization in the US equity market.
(For a $100,000 account, the average Wealthfront client will allocate approximately $30,000 for US equity, according to materials provided by the firm. The “highest level” of service is available when the client account exceeds $1 million in assets.) The average age for a client using direct indexing is 37.)
morning Star TIFIN’s Magnifi . partnered with Direct indexing to be brought to investors in August. This offering comes with no minimum and a 20- to 30-basis-point fee that is shared between the asset manager and TIFIN.
Other Schwab competitors are moving forward with their own direct sequencing plans.
Last year, Vanguard bought Direct Indexing Platform Just Invest and laid the foundation for direct sequencing with better Its remodeled custom portfolio, later that year, BNY Mellon’s Pershing buys customized direct indexing provider Optimal asset management.
William Trout, director of the Wealth Management Division at Javelin Strategy & Research, said Schwab’s platform is “a home-built solution designed to scale”.
“Schwab is sticking to its weave in terms of targeting the affluent investor,” he explained. Account minimum points for a target end-client who is wealthy enough to hold a financial advisor, “or at least sensible enough to appreciate the value of financial advice, even if in an automated form,” he said.
If Schwab continues to serve smaller clients with fewer assets, he said, it will prove to be an administrative and operational nightmare.
Trout appreciated Schwab’s decision to limit direct sequencing to three indices, which minimizes complexity. In the future, he hopes the Schwab enhancements will make it easier for advisors to access portfolios. The tool fits neatly into the Schwab mantra of “Value for Money.”
